“I’m not a doctor, so I can’t really elaborate. He’s a pretty profoundly disturbed young man in a mental health kind of way.”

The exact names of the suspect and his mother were unclear. Local court records list the suspect’s name as Oliver Funes Machada, Sturges said.

NEIGHBOUR DESCRIBES MOMENT SUSPECT WAS ARRESTED

Neighbor Randy Mullins was leaving his house minutes after the first deputy arrived and he said he saw the woman's head lying in the front yard about five feet from the porch.

The deputy appeared to have just handcuffed the suspect and seemed rattled when Mullins approached to ask if he needed help. “You could see in his face he had a lot of concern. I’m not saying he was scared, but you could tell he was concerned,” Mullins said of the deputy. Mullins then went back to his house across the street and told his 91-year-old mother to stay inside. He said a half-dozen more cop cars arrived within minutes and a deputy covered the woman’s head. “I couldn’t believe it. Things like that don’t happen,” said Mullins, 59, who has lived in the neighbourhood for 25 years. “You can’t believe somebody would do that. You hear about that, but it never happens across the street from you.” He added the suspect appeared calm while he sat handcuffed as a deputy kneeled down to comfort the two younger children. “He was sitting there like he didn’t have a care in the world,” Mullins said of the 18-year-old. “He didn’t appear to be upset; he didn’t appear to be crying.” Mullins said the family had moved in around June 2016. He didn’t know them well, but he and his mother said they seemed friendly.

Federal records list his name as Oliver Funes Machado, said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Bryan Cox. In a statement, Cox said the suspect was from Honduras and was in the country illegally.

Authorities say all three remaining children are with their father, who was on the scene after the incident and was overcome with grief.

Winstead said: “It’s a terrible situation for the family, a terrible situation for the neighbourhood and this county.

“I’m just glad things worked out the way they did and no one else was hurt in taking the suspect into custody.”

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